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| The delightful Megan Rowlatt winner of the National Young Landcare Leader Award 2012, at Shoalhaven High School. Megan is our Young Eco Champion for the Archibull Prize. Funded by Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority and hosted by Conservation Volunteers Australia, as the Landcare Community Support Officer for the Illawarra region, her role is to assist Landcare volunteers, private landholders and farmers, as well as the wider community to develop skills and knowledge around natural resource management. This includes delivering training to build capacity of volunteers and individuals working in natural areas to carry out quality on-ground activities, engaging new volunteers into Landcare, managing and distributing online resources through newsletters, social media and a range of websites, and applying for a variety of grants to carry out environmental projects in the Illawarra region. |
Deborah interviewing Megan for the Archibull Prize
Mrs McNeil, Megan and Ms Hargraves
Three of out team members wrote their own recount of Megan's visit: Kirsty, Rochelle and Kristy.
Kirsty's recount:
On Tuesday the 6th of August, Megan Rowlatt a Young Eco Champion, visited our Archibull team at Shoalhaven High School. She explained to us that Natural Resource Management is "the management of all the resources we need to survive". These resources include water, air and soil.
After Megan completed a degree in Ecotourism, she returned to the Illawarra where she had grown up and worked for National Parks and Wildlife. Shortly after she joined Conservation Volunteers Australia which is funded by a Catchment Area Management Group. She then moved on to become a Landcare Officer.
She loves her job where she runs special community events in Landcare, special tree planting events, seed collection days, field days, Illawarra Youth Landcare Group and workshops for farmers. The workshops assist farmers to improve their landcare practises, regenerate native vegetation and identify weeds which can be toxic to livestock and outcompete native pasture species.
After Megan gave her presentation we took her for a tour of our fabulous farm where she got to meet our dairy calves. We then quickly interviewed her before she had to leave. It was a great afternoon and we learnt lots of information about Natural Resource Management.
Showing Megan around our school farm
Rochelle's recount:
During Megan's visit to our school, she shared a lot of information about her job in Natural resource Management.
She went to University on the Gold Coast and studied teaching for a year. She didn't like it at all. So after that she changed her studies to Ecotourism. She told us that she was perfect for her job because she loves the outdoors. She learns a lot about plants and animals in her work. She needs to be able to identify plant types so that she knows if they can be pulled from the ground or not. She explained that some plants can be harmful to animals and other native plant types.
Megan enjoyed meeting Creamy our cow and some of our sheep at the school's farm. She left us some eco friendly bags with hand prints on them. It was a great visit.
Megan giving her presentation to the Archibull Team at Shoalhaven High
Kristy's recount:
Megan Rowlatt came to my school and talked about her life and work. Megan completed a degree in Ecotourism. She then worked for National Parks and Wildlife and then moved into conservation. In her job she runs special community events involved in Landcare and tree planting. She runs workshops for farmers to help them regenerate native plants, collect seeds and identify weeds. Megan also works with young people and runs the Illawarra Youth Landcare group.She has won awards for her work.
Megan has travelled the world and learnt a lot about the land that we all live on. I enjoyed listening to Megan talk about what she did. Her work is important for future generations.
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